Christine Jennings

Photo by Javier Blazquez of Christine Jennings, surrounded by Olympian Angela Maurer on her left, Olympian Melissa Gorman on her right, and Olympian Poliana Okimoto behind her in the 5 km race at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships in Sevilla, Spain in an example of open water swimming physicality

Christine Jennings at the 2011 World Championships

Christine Jennings Winning FINA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup

Christine Jennings with Petar Stoychev after winning BCT Gdynia Marathon 2012

Christine Jennings is an American competitive swimmer, one of the fastest open water swimmers in the world. She was awarded the athlete scholarship by the prestigious International Academy of Sports Science and Technology (AISTS or Académie Internationale des Sciences et Techniques du Sport) for matriculation in January 2016.

Open Water Swimming

Jennings represents the United States as a member of the USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Team who won the 2012 BCT Gdynia Marathon in Poland and the 2013 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships in Castaic Lake, California.

A post-graduate from the University of Minnesota, she competed in the 5 km race at the 2008 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Sevilla, Spain in her first international competition and has been making increased improvement ever since. Jennings earned NCAA All-America honors in the 500 free and the 800 free relay and helped Minnesota win the 2008 Big Ten Championships during her collegiate pool career. She took fifth in the 10 km at the 2009 USA Swimming Open Water Swimming National Championships. She earned bronze in the 5 km and finished seventh in the 10 km at the 2007 USA Swimming Open Water National Championships.

She was the Gold medal winner in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships and finished 7th and 4th in the 10 km and 5 km, respectively, at the 2010 FINA World Championships in Roberval, Quebec, Canada. She has also won the prestigious winner-take-all RCP Tiburon Mile in San Francisco Bay and was a bronze medalist in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico. She also won the 2012 Traversée Internationale du Lac Mégantic in Quebec, Canada, a FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup race as well as the 2012, 2013 and 2015 BCT Gdynia Marathon competitions in Poland and the 2013 Faros Marathon in Croatia setting a course record. She also won the Great North Swim in Windermere, England on 13 June 2015.

She endured a freak injury as she was about to win the 2012 Rei e Rainha do Mar on Copacabana Beach in Brazil for the second year in a row. She broke a bone in her lower leg as she was running up the beach.

2011 FINA World Championships

Jennings placed 13th (2:02:24.6) in the 2011 FINA World Championships in the 10 km marathon swim in Shanghai, China.

2013 USA Swimming Open Water National Championships